The Oklahoma City Thunder can’t go back in time. They don’t get a chance to go back to June 16, 2006, when until the final five minutes of Kevin Durant’s final home game with the Thunder they might have briefly become the 2016 title favorites.

They can’t even go back to July 3, 2016, when they seemed like the favorites to retain the second-best player in the world. That’s two gut punches that would turn many franchises into the Sacramento Kings.

Life, and sports, don’t give us mulligans. They do provide opportunities to show what you’re made of.

The Thunder have chosen to move forward. They didn’t raise the white flag when the Warriors won 73 games in 2015-16.

They blitzed the best regular-season team in NBA history twice and were a few minutes from a knockout. Then Klay Thompson’s attacks from afar and Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant’s shots at their own proverbial feet did them in.

And maybe their own culture of protection around their players led them to a place where they believed a narrative about Durant more than the honest version. Maybe that led to the July 4th cloud over the Sooner State they wished was just smoke from fireworks.

But anyone who follows them should be happy they haven’t joined the white flag crowd just because the Warriors wisely swooped in to take Durant and won a second title in three years.

The Thunder are all in for the 2017-18 season. They’re underdogs when it comes to the Warriors, but who isn’t? Maybe the original Dream Team wouldn’t be. But OKC is best positioned to make a run should something bad happen to the champs.

OKC shocked us all by grabbing Paul George, who does about everything Durant does just not quite as well. But like Rockets’ GM Daryl Morrey says, you want as many Team USA guys as you can get. The Thunder have two.

And the Thunder have the second-best defensive team in the league in my opinion. They worked out a deal to keep restricted free agent Andre Roberson, who can’t make free throws or a two-point jumper, but can guard most anyone defensively. He’d be Shawn Marion 2.0 if he just had an offensive game.

So the Thunder can switch and dig in defensively with a lineup of Westbrook, Roberson, George, Patrick Patterson and Steven Adams. Adams is a good at pick-and-roll play at both ends, an amazingly agile defender for his massive size. The rest are really versatile and capable of guarding three positions. That’s a tough group of ballplayers to consistently get good lucks against, especially on nights where Westbrook is engaged defensively.

And speaking of the MVP – well-deserved by the way – there’s a chance Westbrook’s assists come easier and he’s not expending quite as much offensively. George and Patterson space the floor a bit even if Roberson makes it 4-on-5 at times. And the bench, which lacks a point guard to this point, has Enes Kanter (for now), Jeremi Grant, Doug McDermott, first-round shooter Terrance Ferguson and Alex Abrines.

Grant can play the 3, 4 or 5 with the second unit and switch things defensively like the starters. The defense goes down with the second unit but Kanter is one of the better post scoring options around. They could use a veteran point guard, like maybe Raymond Felton, who will play cheap but wants to play in the playoffs.

The Northwest Division is no joke. Portland has the third-highest payroll in the league and the backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. It’s no guarantee the Blazers won’t finish last.

The last-place Timberwolves made the first big splash this off-season by trading for Jimmy Butler. And hard to find anyone who believes Karl Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins will get worse. Jeff Teague is a solid point guard who can get in the paint. The T-Wolves will just have to be really good at two-point shots because they lack shooters.

The Thunder are better than the team that went 47-35. The Jazz lost Gordon Hayward but still have a solid club with Ricky Rubio on board to run the point for last year’s division winner. And the Nuggets have the best young center in basketball, some guards who could develop and added Paul Millsap.

I expect the Thunder and T-Wolves to compete for the division title and they could possibly finish 4-5 in the West standings and face off in the first round. That’d be fun basketball.

And you’d have two coaches and two teams who aren’t just looking for consolation prizes. The Wolves best bet may be 2020-22 but the Thunder needs to show something now.

The MVP hasn’t signed his extension yet. And George is a free agent to be with eyes for Hollywood by all accounts. It was a gamble to go big in 2017-18 when the Warriors are overwhelming favorites.

But the Thunder fans have loyally showed up to support their team from Day 1. So Sam Presti chose #ThunderUp over giving up. No guarantees this will work. But it sure made the next 12 months more interesting.